1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to processing wastes for storage and disposal. In particular, the present invention relates to reforming waste containers, including already compacted wastes, for more efficient use of storage space.
2. Discussion of Background
The disposal of all types of wastes, including radioactive and hazardous wastes, is a significant problem. Environmental concerns about the stability of waste destined for disposal or long term storage has led many to a variety of solutions in order to better handle the increasing volumes of waste being produced. Waste volumes can be reduced by incinerating or recycling, thus decreasing the amount of waste going to disposal sites or to long-term storage. However, there is still a large amount of waste that can be neither recycled nor incinerated.
In addition to the stability and volumes of the various wastes in storage, there is a concern about the efficient use of the space the waste occupies at a disposal site. The price charged for disposal, which includes taxes levied by the state and local governments, frequently includes a component that is based on the volume of waste to be disposed of as an easily-measured aspect of the waste and as a way to encourage waste generators to reduce this volume.
After implementation of programs reducing the relative amount of waste generated and processing the waste to separate waste from non-waste so that only the former is disposed of, the volume of wastes can be reduced by compaction. The waste material is placed in containers such as standard 55-gallon drums which are then placed in compactors. The compactors use hydraulic rams to squeeze the air out of the drummed waste, thus increasing its weight density. For example, Morris, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,105,736, discloses a compaction apparatus for metallic drums, and Pols, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,199, discloses a hydraulic press for compacting drums containing radio-active wastes. The output of these compactors is a thick, roughly disk-shaped, crushed drum, generally called a puck. Sometimes these pucks are placed in overpacks, such as other drums or boxes, for disposal or long term storage.
Once the overpacks or boxes are filled, they are buried in landfills or stored in repositories. However, the nature of the circular pucks does not lead to their efficient packing in rectangular overpacks, because they leave unused space between them.
There is a need to further reduce the amount of space required for disposal or storage of waste that is not presently being met by volume reduction and compaction, and the less-than-efficient packing of waste containers with already-compacted waste pucks has led to the present invention which shall now be summarized.